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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   711 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 28, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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  • @atelier mentioned Fall of Civilizations, and I also recommend that one. Very well-made. One caveat though: I actually prefer to watch it on youtube because they add lots of nice imagery there.
  • Literature and History: Excellently made, but sadly very woke. Practically every episode is at least 25% the author making casting shade on bronze-age people for not having modern-day morality. Sometimes that's a full 100%. Very unfortunate.
  • History of Ancient Greece: Less skilled speaker, unfortunately nasal, but it's more dry and technical and without the constant woke commentary. Just the way I like it.

I just realize I said "podcasts" earlier, but in actual truth I mostly do audiobooks.

Over the last few years, I listened to

  • Dune. Fair for its day, but not actually as good as people nowadays make it out to be.
  • Brigador. Good.
  • Flashman. Good.
  • The Sienkiewicz Trilogy. Very good.
  • Ciaphas Cain. Tolerable Flashman knockoff, but not actually all that good.
  • Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. Decent.
  • Conan the Barbarian. I liked it, but I can see how someone might not.
  • Moby Dick. Excellent as always.
  • Neuromancer, read by William Gibson. Terrible, the man can't speak.
  • History of the Peloponnesian War. Excellent book, but audio is not the right medium for it.
  • All the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges. Good.
  • The Worm Ourobouros. Absolutely excellent.
  • Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch. Interesting, but not actually very good, even by 17th century standards.
  • Les Trois Mousqetaires. Surprisingly good, but tough going because my French isn't all that good anymore.

Most of those I got from librivox.com. Fair warning: The quality there varies wildly.

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